Chili Rellenos Bocados in Indfused style-all the flavor, none of the guilt!
It is Cinco de Mayo today! Time for a fiesta! Chili Rellenos is one of my most favorite dishes and when we eat at a Mexican restaurant, no matter how extensive the menu is, I find myself ordering the chili relleno over and over again. Invariably, I have later regretted eating the tasteless, soggy chili relleno, soaked in oil 🙁
Hence my quest of making the chili relleno that my taste buds would have a fiesta with! Chili rellenos means chili with stuffing. Bocados is bites.
I listed what I wanted in my chili relleno-
- Yummy stuffing in poblano peppers, instead of just the cheese
- Crispy, tasty outer coating without the deep frying…..of course
- A cotija cheese sauce instead of the ubiquitous tomato sauce.
So this was my experimental solution-
- A beans, fire roasted corn and cheese mixture spiced with chipotle chilies in adobo sauce.
- Crispy coating of an eggless mixture of besan and cornmeal and made in an ebelskiver or aappe pan with just a few drops of oil!
- Creamy cotija cheese sauce without the crema.
I cut the chilies in half horizontally and made them bite size but you could make the whole chili in a sandwich maker too!
My family, my biggest critics, liked the cotija cheese sauce too. The craisins offer a yummy contrast to the salty cotija cheese. Pomegranate arils taste awesome with the cotija cheese sauce……but truth be told, I was so happy I took the pictures before I stepped out to get the pomegranate. Because when I got back from the store, there were no chile relleno bocados left to photograph!
Chili Rellenos Bocados- Indfused style!
Ingredients
- 3 medium sized poblano peppers
For the stuffing-
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon ground chilies in adobo sauce or to taste
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- Salt to taste
- 3/4 cup cooked red beans
- ¼ cup fire roasted corn
For the batter-
- ¼ cup besan or gram flour
- 2 tablespoon cornmeal or idli rawa
- 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- Salt to taste
- Water
½ cup grated Mexican cheese
About 2 teaspoons oil
For the cotija cheese sauce-
- ¼ cup cotija cheese, finely grated
- 1/3 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 small clove of garlic, grated
- ¼ teaspoon wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- Salt to taste
- ¼ cup craisins or pomegranate arils
To make the Chili Relleno Bocados-
- Char the skin of the poblano peppers on the cooktop as shown in the photos. It can also be done using a broiler or an outdoor grill. Turn the peppers to char the skin on all sides. Put them in a paper bag (as shown in photos) and close the top or put them in a bowl and cover them to sweat the peppers for a few minutes. Remove skin as shown in photo. Using a paper towel helps grab the skin and catch the blackened skin in it too. Cut the chilies in half and remove seeds and stem.
- For the stuffing, combine the tomato paste, chilies in adobo sauce, brown sugar and salt. Add the cooked beans and the fire roasted corn. Stir to combine.
- Combine all the dry ingredients for the batter and whisk in the water to form a batter the consistency of dosa or pancake batter.
- Heat the ebelskiver/ aape pan with a few drops of oil in the indentations. Dip the stuffed chilies in the batter and drop them in the pan. Divide the grated cheese in 6 portions and top the chilies in batter with the cheese.
- Cover the pan and turn the heat to low. Cook until the batter is cooked through and the bottom of the Chili Relleno Bocados are golden brown and crispy and the cheese is melted.
- Simply combine all ingredients for the cotija cheese sauce and set aside.
- Serve the Chili Rellenos Bocados with the cotija cheese sauce.
Enjoy Cinco de Mayo!
Love,
<3
Sandhya
HAppy CInco de Mayo Sandhya. These Mexican beauties look so tantalizing, I could taste all those flavors as I was reading your post. Guilt-free? Bring it on, and I’ll have a couple of margaritas too please😍😍
Thanks Loretta! These came out great and I pigged out on them.
Yes margaritas would be awesome with them. I love pina coladas too 🙂
This sounds amazing. Cheers…Happy Cinco de Mayo =)
Thanks so much! Hope you had a good one too.
Sandhya
It’s yummy one 😍
Thanks so much!
Learning from you. Beautiful post, exploring new flavours.. thank you sandhya for this great share.
Sumith, I am so flattered by you saying that you are learning from me! Thanks so much dear friend!
Sounds interesting!
Thanks Megala! We loved it!
Fabulous share!!
Thanks so much Shy!
You are the best in bringing awesome recipes guilt free. Love the mayo and the chili pepper I nan aappe pan, Sandhya you rock. Love the idea of cornmeal in your batter. Looks yumm, will have to try to taste it. Thanks for sharing dear.
Meena
Thanks so much Meena! I love to eat and don’t want to give up on taste so guilt free recipes are a must 🙂
Happy Cinco de Mayo Sandhya and what an adventurous recipe to celebrate!
Thanks Laura! Yes it was adventurous- I did not know until I made it if it would work- especially the batter. I was so glad it worked beautifully 🙂
Thank you for the recipe! I will try it out this weekend. Do you think it is crazy if I use habanero pepper instead?
Indah, Habanero is much hotter than the poblano. Plus the poblano chili is bigger in size, so can hold the stuffing in.
Do let me know how you like it.
Sounds so good!
Thanks so much Freda!
I hope you had a nice Cinco de Mayo! I love your version of this yummy dish! It looks delicious Sandhya!
Thanks Antonia. It rained and was cold but we still had a good Cinco de Mayo.
It still has not quite warmed up in our area and we are expecting a storm Mother’s day 🙁 How is the weather in your neck of the woods? Wishing you a great Mother’s Day!
It was cool here too, but now it is getting hot. Happy Mother’s Day to you too my friend!